US says Russia likely launched space weapon

On Tuesday, Gen Ryder said the Pentagon believed the Russian satellite was “presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit”.

“Russia deployed this new counter space weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite.

“And so assessments further indicate characteristics resembling previously deployed counter space payloads, from 2019 and 2022.

“We have a responsibility to be ready to protect and defend, the domain, the space domain, and ensure continuous and uninterrupted support to the Joint and Combined Force,” the Pentagon spokesman added.

Separately, a spokesperson for the US Space Command told Reuters news agency that the satellite was “likely a counter space weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit”.

The spokesperson said the satellite – Cosmos 2576 – was launched on 16 May from Russia’s Plesetsk cosmodrome, about 800km (497 miles) north of Moscow.

In its statement, Russia’s Roskosmos state space agency said the launch on 17 May was “in the interests of the defence ministry of the Russian Federation”. It said its launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1b was used.

The different reported launch dates might be explained by the fact that the Moscow time zone is three hours ahead of GMT.

Neither Moscow nor Washington provided any further details.

But space analysts say that Cosmos 2576 appears to be on the same orbit as America’s USA 314 satellite.

Since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has warned that US satellites aiding the Ukrainian military could become legitimate targets.

In February, the White House admitted Russia was developing a “troubling” new space weapon, but insisted that it had yet to deploy it.

It came after a senior Republican congressman issued a cryptic warning about a serious national security threat, sparking intense rumours around the Washington DC.

A report released by the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies last year suggested that Russia is developing a range of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, including a missile that was successfully tested against a defunct Soviet-era satellite in November 2021.